JOIN USSecurity has been tightened in naxal-hit districts in Odisha in view of the bandh call given by the Maoists on Wednesday.
The left wing extremists have given the bandh call protesting the Union Government’s attempt to implement the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) and to stop operation Green Hunt in naxal-dominated areas.
In the last two days, Maoists’ posters appealing the people to join the bandh were found at several places in naxal-hit southern districts like Koraput, Rayagara and Malkangiri. The authorities have become more careful because the recent high profile kidnapping of BJD MLA Jhina Hikaka was executed by the red rebels in the tribal dominated Koraput district on the eve of a similar bandh.
“The authorities in all the naxal-hit districts, particularly in southern region, have been directed to remain in high alert. The security in the area has been tightened and the police have been asked to intensify patrolling along with the central forces,” said an official in the state home department.
Meanwhile, the state government has claimed that the naxal related incidents have come down in Odisha. This has been stated by the director general(DG) of state police Manmohan Praharaj in a letter sent to the union home ministry.
The DG was responding to the union home ministry’s recent communication to the state government in which the former had charged the latter of not doing enough to control the naxal menace in the state.
To prove his point, Praharaj has maintained in his letter that the state police and the central forces had been able to eliminated 27 Maoists in different naxal hit districts between January, 2011 and May, 2012. Similarly during this period, 194 red rebels were arrested and 60 others had surrendered before the police.
In a separate incident on Tuesday, a jawan of the Odisha police, Ajay Sahu was shot dead in mysterious circumstances when a joint anti-naxal combing operation of the state police and the CRPF was on in naxal affected Keonjhar district.